The “gender beat” concept developed less than a decade ago, but it has already evolved significantly since then. While many of the journalists interviewed by Meg Heckman, a journalist, author and educator with Northeastern University, thought the concept of a gender beat should not be necessary, she believes it is a necessary stepping stone in the short term.
Distrust between Pittsburgh s diverse communities and the media is a significant problem identified in an American Press Institute pilot program, which implemented an Inclusion Index developed by Letrell Deshan Crittenden, Ph.D. A Jan. 24 event at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center in Pittsburgh drew media and community members who spoke about improving coverage.
The Economic Hardship Reporting Project is a nonprofit organization that supports independent journalists financially, editorially and through co-publishing efforts with renowned media outlets. EHRP Executive Director Alissa Quart says: "We’re changing how people in media work with working-class people and with the concepts around inequality and social class.”
When the nation watched George Floyd call for his mother and take his last breaths from beneath a police officer’s knee in Minneapolis, it ignited a wildfire across the country, calling for a reckoning on lethal policing. For journalists, it started a national conversation on how best to cover police, how to stay safe and how to identify our role as journalists in preventing the next Floyd from making headlines in our own local newspapers.
Experts determined to save local news launched a year-long process to research and publish “The Roadmap for Local News: An Emergent Approach to Meeting Civic Information Needs” on February 2nd. The year of research involved newsroom leaders, journalists and local news innovators.